By Isabella Gyau Orhin
It was the Editor Mr. Amos Safo who introduced her to me around midday. The Mother of one of the children suffering from a heart defect. She looked worried and anxious, sweating with her blown off by the wind. It was obvious she had been walking briskly towards our office; probably from the roadside where a taxi might have dropped her. She had come to see if the publication we carried about his son and others asking for people to donate has yielded the money required for the operation.
That was not the first time I had seen that woman come to our office. The first time I saw her climb the staircase to the Editor’s Office, She was accompanied by another lady believed to be her sister, a friend or probably a confidant. Where are they going in such haste? I asked my self
Her son is eight year old Samuel Mantey who looks younger than his age as a result of the defect.
In case you are not aware of this issue, let me give you an update.
The 27th October 2006 edition of the public Agenda, reported that an eight year old boy who is suffering from ‘hole-in-heart’, popularly called Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) has just two months to live, unless he undergoes an operation to correct the defect. The National Cardiothoracic Center also diagnosed the boy with ‘mitral valve incompetence’, which is affecting his health and in order for him to be well, he needs an open-heart operation to correct these birth defects, says a letter from the center.
The boy’s mother Vida Ofori is therefore appealing to philanthropists to help her raise the amount for the operation in order to save her son. According to the Cardio Center the cost of the surgery is 7,000 Euros. The Ghana Heart Foundation will assist by picking up 50 percent of the cost ( E3,500), leaving the boy’s family with the remaining E3,500. ‘My family and I are financially handicapped to foot this bill”, Vida said in her petition to the public. Also in need of public support for hole-in-heart operations are three and half year old Grace Tetteh and three-year-old Samuel Danquah
“How is he now?” I mustered courage to ask after shaking hands with her.
Hmm, she replied, He is okay, just that he cannot urinate.
Why don’t you take her back to the hospital,” I quickly added,
I did and they gave him some medicine but even with that he has to ‘push’ for a long time before he is able to urinate a little.
The doctor says the operation must be carried out latest by December else ………Hmmm.
Mr. Safo encouraged her to take heart, not necessarily assuring her that all the money will all be collected within the stipulated time.
“We are doing our best,” he reassured her. I sensed she wanted to hear something more positive than what the editor offered. Well, not much has been collected so she left.
I saw her again the next day, My Editor was handing over to her some copies of the publication.
I could see the desperation in the face of the editor; it has become his problem too.
“I wish we had money to solve this problem,” he confided in me when I went to his office to drop a filename for a story. He has therefore asked all Public Agenda staff to contribute some amount to this cause.
A philanthropist who wants to remain anonymous dropped a cheque for 500, 000 cedis at Citi FM for the boy and the Ark Foundation has also responded.
Probably as a father, the Editor feels the pinch and I feel it too.
I love being a parent but I cannot stand to see my children fall sick; that aspect of parenting I hate to the core.
My mother has often advised, “You need to be courageous if you want to be a parent.”
But let us pause and ask how much courage does one need to take care of a heart patient?
Last July, while accompanying a group of European Journalists who toured the country on a World Bank sponsored project we visited the Cardiothoracic Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital where this little boy and others are receiving treatment.
Two young beautiful girls touched my heart. A beautiful dark plump girl, about eight years old was lying on her bed with a worried grandmother beside her.
She looked alright, except that her breathing was difficult as her chest heaped up and down. Adjacent to her bed was another beautiful girl, slightly fair and slim, about five or six years old.
The Nursing sister taking us round the wards said her money had been realized and her surgery would take place soon.
There were others whose surgery had delayed not because of money but religious reasons, they do not want blood transfusion which is a requirement for their surgery.
One Pretty lady about 30 years old had insisted she would rather die than take blood transfusion.
Dr. Lawrence Siriboe, a leading surgeon at the centre briefed us about the state of affairs at the clinic, the new equipments that is able to diagnose all heart problems and the movement from a small place to the centre. Our European guests were impressed with the efforts of Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng.
The fact that he left the comforts of Europe and all it offers, to come home and help establish a heart centre.
They also felt the pain the doctors have to go through on daily basis, seeing the suffering of patients and not being able to do much about the monies. The frequency of visits of patients to the centre has turned the place into a home for all their patients.
They come there any time and any day, whether in pain or not.
Some young ladies who received treatment at the centre have given birth some even twins and pay regular visits to the centre, to visit the nurses and also ask for financial assistance if need be.
The Policy at the Centre is that patients who need to under go heart surgery will have to raise half of the cost of the operation while the rest is taken from the Ghana Heart Foundation set up some years back.
According to Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, if every Ghanaian contributes a little money to the fund, there will be no need for parents to raise part of the money as happens elsewhere in the world.
“It appears a lot of Ghanaians have their priorities wrong. Large sums of monies are churned out to support so called beauty pageants, model contests for both male and female and countless fashion shows,” a colleague in the office complained.
Of course, he is right, it appears, appeals for funds for such problems do not attract the attention at all the motor companies and the beauty shops that support these shows.
Well our friends from Europe did not leave without donating money to the heart foundation.
One man from Holland I saw inserted some cash into the donation Box and others followed suit, at least, they have done their part
What about us?
In June 2005, the Director of the Ghana Health Service Professor, Agyeman Badu Akosa made it clear that heart surgeries, removal of huge tumours and some brain surgeries and other special cases that require huge expenditures are not covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme. “Health care is expensive and we cannot load everything on health Insurance, he said.He explained that it is important for the entire country to support a national health Foundation on the lines of the Ghana heart foundation which would be used to treat such cases.Speaking on a radio interview with Kwaku Sakyi-Addo in Accra, Dr. Akosa also said there are several ways of raising monies to treat such cases.He said import duties on tobacco could be raised; taxes could be put on alcoholic beverages as well as an environmental sanitation levy.According to him, some churches should also make monthly contributions out of their huge earnings towards health care in the country.“Churches make huge monies and that would be their social obligation to their flock,” he said. Adding, “If People pay a tenth of their earnings in tithes; there is nothing wrong if the church pays a tenth of its earnings to the provision of health service in the country.“Throughout the world that is what is practiced, there are various foundations which support various diseases and it is about time we picked it up,” Prof. Akosah said.
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